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Sushil storms into final, one step away from historic gold
NEW DELHI: India's Sushil Kumar advanced into the Olympic men's 66kg freestyle wrestling final after coming from behind in his last four clash in spectacular style on Sunday.
Victory means the 29-year-old, world champion in 2010, is guaranteed to improve on the bronze medal he won at the Beijing Games four years ago.
Having won the first period against Akzhurek Tanatarov of Kazakhstan, Kumar saw his semifinal opponent level and then go 3-0 ahead in the third and final period.
But Kumar countered with a hold down initially worth two points, which he converted into a three-point score to tie the match. And with 34 seconds left he'd edged 5-3 in front.
Then, with just seconds of the contest remaining, Kumar sealed victory with a huge throw that saw him dump Tanatarov onto the mat.
Now he will face Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemistu in the final later Sunday.
Kumar had a tough start to his London 2012 campaign, beating 2008 gold medallist Ramazan Sahin of Turkey 3-1.
There are no seedings in Olympic wrestling and the luck of the draw saw Kumar paired against fellow former world champion Sahin in the last 16.
In his quarter-final bout, Kumar overcame Uzbekistan's Ikhtiyor Navruzov, also by a 3-1 margin, after surviving a spirited rally by his opponent with some quick counters and strong lifts.
Kumar, who carried India's flag at the opening ceremony, is now assured of giving his country their second freestyle wrestling medal of this Games after Yogeshwar Dutt won 60kg bronze on Saturday. — AFP
Mumbai violence: Situation normal, over 20 persons held
MUMBAI: Over 20 people have been arrested in connection with the violence near Azad Maidan in Mumbai, in which two youths were killed and at least 55 injured, the police said on Sunday.
The situation is normal today and heavy police deployment has been put in place, they said.
“The situation has been normal since yesterday evening. We have deployed a heavy police force in the vicinity of Azad Maidan,” a senior police officer said.
Over 20 people allegedly involved in the Saturday’s violence have been arrested and various sections of IPC, including that of molestation and theft, have been slapped on them, the police said.
During the violence, the mob had snatched two self- loading rifles and a pistol from women police personnel, they added.
Two persons were killed and at least 55 people, including 45 policemen, injured in the mayhem that erupted after a protest rally turned violent, with the mob damaging buses, hurling stones and setting vehicles afire.
The protest call was given by a city-based outfit, Raza Academy, to denounce the riots in Assam and also the alleged attacks on a minority community in Myanmar. Awami Vikas Party (AVP), a political outfit floated by former police officer Shamsher Khan Pathan, had also taken part in the protest.
Police said the crime branch would probe if any inflammatory speech was made by the organisers of the protest rally at Azad Maidan and whether the vandalism was pre-meditated. — PTI
Ramdev warns of
'big revolution' if PM
does not meet his demands
NEW DELHI: Ramdev on Sunday warned of a "big revolution" if the Prime Minister did not meet his demands for announcing immediate steps to bring back black money, enactment of a strong Lokpal and measures to end corruption.
As his fast entered the fourth day on Sunday and the government continuing to ignore the protest, Ramdev wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking that his demands be accepted and suitable measures taken to implement them.
Issuing a fresh appeal and declaring a new deadline, Ramdev targeted the Prime Minister saying he has to show political honesty and political will on the matter.
He alleged that Singh did not honour the promise on declaring black money a national asset or taking steps to bring back black money stashed away abroad.
"When UPA came to power, the Prime Minister promised that black money will be brought back in 100 days. Many such 100 days have gone by but black money is still stashed in tax havens abroad," he claimed.
"You are being hailed as an honest person. We don't doubt your personal honesty. But you will have to show political honesty and political duty. If you do not do your duty, then there will be a question mark on your political honesty," Ramdev said.
Addressing his supporters at Ramlila Maidan here, Ramdev said the fast, which was to end on Saturday evening, was continuing and a decision on the next course of action will be taken in the evening.
"Till a decision on our demands are not taken, I am ready to continue my fast. The fast will not end today. When it will end, I will tell you tomorrow," he said.
"We wrote to you (Singh) earlier regarding the issue. We have now sent you a fresh letter. We will wait till this evening. If there is no decisive action, there will be a big revolution from tomorrow," he said.
Though he was to announce his plans on Saturday evening, Ramdev has been extending his deadline and deferring announcement of his next course of action. He had said on Saturday evening that he will announce his strategy on Sunday morning but he deferred it for the evening with a letter to the Prime Minister.
The fourth day of Ramdev's protest saw erstwhile Team Anna member Kiran Bedi making a presence at the fast venue though Anna Hazare and other members of the team have kept away.
Ramdev also extended an invitation to all parties to join his protest if they agreed with his demands.
Ramdev also sought to attack Congress saying though he was not singling out the party on the issue of black money, it had ruled the country for most of the time after Independence and, hence, it had to take responsibility.
"We are not here to tarnish anybody. But what is the danger that Congress perceives in bringing back black money or declaring it national asset, if they do not own it? We had given you time till yesterday. Your time is over and now our innings start," he said. — PTI
Anna directed us to start forming political party: Kejriwal
NEW DELHI: Top Team Anna members on Sunday rejected criticism that Anna Hazare was forced to adopt the path of political alternative and claimed that he was fully involved in the decision to go political. As a first step, Team Anna may test the waters in the Delhi Assembly elections next year while skipping the polls in
BJP-ruled Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year.
The members said a propaganda machinery was working overtime to drive a wedge between Hazare and the other team members which, they feel, would fail.
Activist Arvind Kejriwal even offered to immediately withdraw from going ahead with the political alternative if Hazare says he is against the formation of a party.
Kiran Bedi, however, added a line saying Hazare also gave the option to remain in the anti-corruption movement for those who were not willing to follow the political path.
The views of Kejriwal, Bedi and others came in the context of speculation that Hazare was against the team pitching into politics for changing the system.
"Anna heeded to public demand and is convinced that there was no road left other than providing political alternative. Anna clearly directed us to start forming political party," Kejriwal wrote on
micro-blogging site Twitter.
"Let Anna say once that he is against pol(itical) party formation, we will immediately withdraw," he said, adding that Hazare was extremely sharp politically and fiercely independent.
Anna cannot be influenced by anyone, he added.
Bedi told reporters, "Anna had said that those people who think are ready for political party, then they should take that option, but those who think that the movement is also necessary, Anna has kept both options open."
In reply to a question, she wrote on Twitter, "I have repeatedly made known that I am not aligned towards electoral politics. Its against my nature. Public service is." — PTI
Rescuers dig for survivors after twin quakes kill 250 in Iran
VARZAQAN (IRAN): Grieving women wailed over dozens of bodies of dead relatives and men armed with shovels dug frantically for survivors today, in the wake of twin earthquakes in northwest Iran that killed at least 250 people and injured 2,000.
AFP journalists in the disaster zone, northeast of the city of Tabriz, saw rescuers working desperately in the rubble of shattered villages whose mud and concrete brick dwellings had collapsed in the strong temblors that struck yesterday.
The bodies, many of which were of women and children, were grouped together. Men nearby took turns to dig graves for them.
Every now and then, the earth trembled from one of more than 55 aftershocks that had continued through the night, jarring the nerves of survivors and exhausted emergency workers.
The quakes came within 11 minutes of each other, yesterday afternoon, as many in the region were at home observing Ramadan fasting.
Tehran University's seismological centre put the first at a magnitude of 6.2 and 11 minutes later the second, a strong aftershock, at 6.0.
The US Geological Survey, which monitors seismic activity worldwide, ranked them as more powerful, at 6.4 and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale, respectively.
The epicentre was 10 kilometres underground some 60 kilometres northeast of
Tabriz, close to the towns of Ahar and Varzaqan.
While Tabriz, with its more solid buildings, escaped relatively unscathed, some 60 villages in the region were decimated, half a dozen of them completely flattened.
"The number of dead has reached 250 and the number of injured has topped 2,000 people," Khalil
Saie, the head of the regional natural disasters centre, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
Earlier he had said that "all the deaths are from rural areas." — PTI
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